Bids for the contract were due last week, and local hospital chain CarePoint Health and Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health were the only entities to submit proposals to become the city's ambulance provider. JCMC has provided that service for Jersey City for over 100 years.

The contract concerns basic life support only. JCMC will remain the ambulance provider for advanced life support because it is the only Jersey City hospital with a trauma center.

Jersey City, CarePoint and JCMC would not provide the bids to The Jersey Journal.

The city has devised two plans for the contract: one would have one entity provide ambulance service for the entire city; the second would divide the city at Montgomery Street, with one bidder providing ambulance service for the northern half and one providing it for the southern half. Bidders were required to submit a plan for the entire city, while a proposal to service just one half of the city was optional.

CarePoint, which began advocating in June to divide the city in half, submitted proposals for both plans, but not JCMC. JCMC spokesman Mark Rabson said the Jersey City hospital believes dividing the city in half is not appropriate, and so submitted one bid to be the only ambulance provider.

"We have always been clear about the fact this city is best served by one qualified EMS provider," he said in an email. "In the best interest of public health and safety, we chose to respond to the option that best serves all of the residents of Jersey City."

But Peter Kelly, CarePoint's senior adviser for external affairs and former CEO of Christ Hospital in Jersey City, which is owned by CarePoint, told The Jersey Journal that dividing the city in half represents "a rare opportunity to collaborate around a common goal."

"The service that's been provided has been excellent service but you can never be good enough," Kelly said. "The residents of Jersey City would be best served by having both of our institutions bring our combined resources together to serve the two areas."

Neither CarePoint nor JCMC would charge the city for providing ambulance service. Fulop has touted this as a cost-saving move, noting that JCMC charged the city about $4 million a year in recent years.

CarePoint is partnering with Bayonne-based McCabe Ambulance, which Kelly said has added additional ambulance equipment and personnel in case it wins the contract. CarePoint is a majority owner of McCabe.

McCabe's founder, Mickey McCabe, could not be reached to comment.

Yesterday, Kelly delivered a box containing more than 4,000 petitions that call for the city to award the ambulance contract to two providers that would each service half the city. Signers of the petition say they "support the creation of two EMS zones," one operated by CarePoint and the other by JCMC. Kelly said they were distributed at Christ Hospital, transportation hubs and shopping centers.

Asked to comment, Rabson noted that JCMC submitted 14,000 signatures last year from residents in favor of JCMC retaining the ambulance contract.

Now that bids have been submitted, the city administration has tasked a committee with reviewing them and choosing which bidder wins the contract. The City Council must OK the administration's choice. The process could take about two months.

Last year, the city said it planned to award the contract to CarePoint, but a council vote was scuttled on Dec. 18. The plan to divide the city in half wasn't introduced until the bidding process began anew in June.